Mindless tasks made easy with Trello, Butler and Siri Shortcuts

[#1]

In every household there's a long list of mindless tasks that need to be done periodically. The tendency is to put such things into a roster or calendar to be shared but the problem with these tasks and calendars is that if you don't do them according to the schedule, the *offset* until you do them the next time shouldn't change.

For example, every 14 days we need to clean out the air quality sensor in the air purifier/dehumidifier. But say I miss it by 3 days, that means that if we had it in a calendar, that task would be due again in 11 days, which isn't correct. It should be due 14 days from when it was last done.

The other problem with chores is that we tend to lump them all together in a process I call "batch procrastination" (more on that another day :) so we wind up having a super clean house once per month, rather than a house that is in a state of perpetual and consistent maintenance.

To that end, what I wanted is to break down all my chores into bite sized chunks and have a simple way to use a voice command to tell me what to do next, then mark it as done and know that I won't see that thing again for *at least* X number of days, and even then only once other items of equal priority have been completed.

So I present to you, the household (or any other facility or equipment) easy maintenance board!

Firstly, you set your board up with lists named "X days" like this:

Now create this Butler rule:

Finally, create this Siri shortcut, and copy it for each list, for example you want a "1 Day Chore" shortcut, a "7 Day Chore" shortcut and so on:

Don't worry, Safari will open the Trello card URL in the Trello app!

Now when you have a bit of time during the day you can say "Hey Siri 1 Day Chore" and it will open the first card in your 1 Days list. The first time you run it, just set the due date to now, then mark it as complete.

Butler will move that card to the bottom of the list and advance the due date the required number of days and mark it as incomplete. The next time someone runs the same shortcut, it will grab the card from the top of the list and so on.

Don't forget to share the shortcut/Trello board with your partner ;)

Happy automating!

[GP_B]

I love the Siri integration- nice helpful touch.

[Samie Kaufman - Your Gal at Gliffy]

I did this for my partner and I when we moved in together a few months ago! I would say we're in the B- grade for actually sticking to it. 

I've found it more valuable for some of our larger/longer-term to-dos. For example, we made a goal of hosting his family once a month. While it's relatively easy for me to ignore the "wipe down appliances" to-do that pops up once a week, having a reminder to schedule that time has been really valuable so that it doesn't slip past us!

[BiancaE]

Super useful tips! I would have never thought of creating a rule for tasks. Thanks for sharing.